We had a packed day today! To learn a bit about the meaning & events of today, Maundy Thursday, we had a little talk about the last supper and the institution of the Holy Eucharist. We also watched a small segment of video on youtube depicting Jesus washing the feet of His disciples and then we did some colouring-in sheets of Jesus washing His disciples feets, and a rather lovely host & chalice colouring-in sheet too
With your expert baking skills dear Joseph, you then helped me make Hot Cross buns. The cross on top was a good springboard for a conversation about the Crucifixion and Good Friday. It must’ve been your exquisit yeast-sprinkling skills, or your expert flour sifting, but the buns turned out unbelievably good for my first-ever attempt, and I think these will become a regular baking tradition for Holy Week!
waiting to be eaten with last summer’s greengage jam!
We then met up with some friends at a local museum to look at artwork releveant to Holy Week. The Renaissance gallery unsurprisingly proved rather fruitful and we looked at some crucifixion, burial and resurrection paintings.
At one point Joseph I asked you which was your favourite painting.
“Ummmmmm…” you replied, as you turned around looking “…hmmm…this one“
randomly pointing to a rather exquisite depiction of the Annunciation by Veneziano on the wall next to us.
Oooh! I thought! The Annunciation! Great! That was only a few weeks ago! We looked at similar paintings of it at the time (see tile in Joseph’s hand), he should remember it…
“Right” I said to you, “That’s an absolutely beautiful picture! I bet you can work out who the people are, and what’s going on…”
*silence*
“Okay…how many people are there?”
“Two“
“Right, two. One is standing up, and the other is…”
“Kneeling down“
“Yes, right. Now look at the one kneeling down. What can you see coming out of his back..?”
…”wings!”
“Yes! Wings! Now who has wings..?”
“….butterflies!
“…yes….butterflies….who else?”
“…bees!”
“yes, bees also have wings…” (I could see this could go on, so I decided to steer you in my direction) …”also angels are depicted with wings aren’t they?!”
“yes, angels“
“so this is an angel….and who is this beautiful lady?”
“mary..?”
“Yes! Mary! This is Mary, and this is the Angel talking to her. Can you remember the Angel’s name…”
“no..“
“Angel Gabriel! Just like the picture we have in our dining room! And what is Angel Gabriel saying to Mary?”
*Suddenly I could see your eyes start to twinkle as you realised that you in fact know this!*
“He says that she is going to have a baby“
“yes! good! and what is the baby called?”
“Jesus!“
“Yes! Well done!”
Despite some confusion over butterflies and bees, we got there in the end!
After all this catechesis, we also went to look at the suits of armour as well, and play on the child-friendly sculptures outside!
When we got home and daddy asked you what you saw at the museum, the first things you said was:
“There were a lot of signs that said “Please do not touch”. There was also a glass elevator with lots of buttons!!”
ha!
